Back in 1985, Carl Singmaster opened a record store called Manifest Discs & Tapes in downtown Columbia, S.C. It was a shoestring operation, launched during an era when people were snapping up cassette copies of Purple Rain and Born in the U.S.A.

“I had $15,000, a MasterCard, and three employees—me, myself and I,” Singmaster says.

He stocked his downtown space with bins from another record shop in town, which had recently upgraded its furnishings.